The GOP loves to use the phrase "job creators" to describe businesses, especially small businesses. They claim that small businesses are hurt by excessive government regulation. I say that the greatest danger that small businesses face is a lack of government regulations to protect them from predatory corporate competitors! For a real eye-opener, visit my Listen Here! page.

Most of you know that I like the Republican Party about as much as I like root canal or an elephant taking a poop on my shoe. Now that in the interest of full disclosure I've told you my perspective, let's continue. You might think that the sole purpose of the Republican Convention is to select, nominate and present their candidates for President and Vice President. In reality, the main purpose of any political convention is to present the platform of its political party and win potential voters over to its candidates.

If a political convention is a marketplace of ideas and ideals, the GOP convention is selling spoiled merchandise. Its collection of ideas and ideals are literally a gathering of evils!

Here are just a few of them:

The GOP claim that Corporate CEOs are experts in running government because they know how to run a business. Let's be blunt and vulgar, in most cases, corporate CEOs excel at screwing their employees by eliminating their jobs or underpaying or overworking them. Just think of what they can do to hurt John and Jane Q. Voter after they get elected and can “accommodate” their rich corporate friends at America's expense.

Expert use of divide and conquer! The Republicans are masters at turning one group against another: Middle-class against poor, Non-union workers against union workers, Old against young, Young against old, Whites against minorities. I could go on and on but you get the idea

Using patriotism and the flag as a political smokescreen to distract from a hidden agenda. Wrapping itself in the American flag has been a GOP tradition for years. There is nothing patriotic about Republican “free” market policies that enable job offshoring, create unemployment and destroy America's manufacturing infrastructure. You might call them economic saboteurs!

Using religion as a political smokescreen to distract from a hidden agenda. There seems to be a symbiotic relationship between the GOP and the religious right. This relationship fulfills the needs of both the GOP and the religious entities that it courts. The Republicans get convenient issues that cost their corporate supporters nothing like birth control or abortion or opposition to gay rights to champion. Those issues are like the shells of a three card Monte game. While everyone is getting worked up supporting or fighting those issues, they are not looking at the real GOP issues like tax breaks for the rich or privatizing Medicare. Religious entities, certain segments of the Catholic Church, for example, hope that they can get the GOP to codify the anti-abortion/anti-birth control parts of their religious doctrine into law. So much for separation of church and state! Speaking of which, why is Archbishop Dolan giving the closing benediction at the GOP convention when the usual practice is to get the local Bishop to perform that function?

Deregulating corporations, regulating people! As stated previously, the Republicans have no problem writing onerous regulations that affect people, corporations are another story. Republicans seem to be implying that corporations are not just people, they are a super-privileged entity that, by virtue of their massive political contributions are entitled to more than the rights guaranteed by the Constitution!

My list of evils is by no means all inclusive. As you watch the convention, you will see more evils than you can count, making it truly a gathering of evils!

In commenting on Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his VP, John Boehner said that Romney and Ryan will “get the federal government out of the way of small business job creators.” I want to take exception to that on several levels. First of all, the greatest hazard that small businesses face these days is competition from giant corporate “job creators” or, to be more accurate, job exporters. Those giant corporate job exporters have been coddled by government for years. When I say government, I'm including the electeds of both parties, but especially the Republican party.

The small business “job creators”, the people who actually do create jobs are another matter. For the most part, our electeds, especially Republicans, treat small business people exactly the same way they treat ordinary working people, they ignore them. Big corporations who have high-powered lobbyists are another matter, they get almost anything they want. Do they want to offshore our jobs? No problem! Do they want deregulation that gives them an unfair advantage in competing with small business? No problem! Does small business need regulatory protection from unfair corporate competition? Problem!

Which brings me to this question: If the post Reagan implementation of Republican style “free” market economics for all these years hasn't helped small business, but has actually hurt small business by subjecting it to unfettered competition from mega corporations (can you say big box stores?), how will more of the same help? I think that the Republicans should come up with a new catch phrase, “job creators” has worn out its welcome!

Believe it or not, years of watching television have conditioned most Americans to think of and classify everything in terms of brands. This branding process doesn't stop with boxes of laundry detergent or cans of cola, we even classify politicians and political parties by the identifying characteristics programmed into our heads from watching years of campaign advertising. What comes to mind when you visualize the two political parties and their candidates? The GOP wants you to think that it and its candidates stand for mom, the flag and apple pie. The Democrats want you to think that they are the party of working people and the poor.

The stereotypical classifications of Democratic politicians as being the saviors of working people and the poor and Republican politicians as being patriots are deceptive at best, dangerous to democracy at worst. Those popular perceptions are borne out of years of political ads and carefully controlled public relations campaigns. The reality and track records of both parties should tell most Americans that nothing is further from the truth. Both parties are just assuming their traditional identities and playing to their target audiences: In the case of the Democrats, that would be working people, the retired and the poor. In the case of the Republicans, that would be the rich and the Archie Bunker variety of working people.

In the mind of their target voters, each of the two parties represents the previously mentioned characteristics; the Republicans represent patriotism, the Democrats fight for working people. Much in the same way that a certain brand of cola and a certain lemon-lime soda have their own specific taste profiles, voters expect each of the two brands, Republican and Democratic to stand for their implied values. When the Republicans rant about patriotism, but support “free” market policies that enable outsourcing jobs overseas, a decidedly unpatriotic act, it dilutes the Republican brand in the minds of their target working class voters. Similarly, when Democrats “compromise” with the Republicans on cuts to Social Security and Medicare and support job killing “free” trade agreements, it dilutes the Democratic brand in the minds of their target working class voters.

The subliminal message that political brand dilution delivers to prospective voters is that neither party delivers on their promises. That kind of message leads to passionless voters who feel that they are voting for the lesser of two evils and feel that once again, the system ripped them off. We have reached the point where one more disappointment might be the straw that broke the camel's back and be the tipping point that triggers a majority third party movement! The only thing that will prevent that from happening is for Democratic politicians to be authentic Democrats and truly support the working people who faithfully supported them. That would entail curbing job offshoring by restoring trade tariffs on imports to pre-Reagan levels, supporting pro-union legislation, fighting for Social Security and Medicare and remembering that the Democratic party is the party of FDR, not Herbert Hoover! One more thing, will Democratic electeds please stop making comments that venerate Ronald Reagan?

Author

Have you noticed that there's no one on Talk Radio who speaks for John and Jane Q. Public? I want to change that situation. When I go into the studio and get on the air, I say the things that you've always wanted to say. The big corporate interests have their lobbyists, I want to be your voice. Just think of me as your guy fighting for your interests.